Top Picks for 2011 and Super-Cycles

There are 2 interesting articles in Business Times today.

One elaborates on Bank Strategists’ top picks for 2011 – commodities and emerging and Asian equities, with a focus on quality on the latter. You can read more about it here.

The other article touches on super-cycles:

This is a period of historically high global growth, lasting a generation or more. There are several fundamental factors driving this, including rising trade, high rates of investment, rapid urbanisation and technological innovation. Super-cycles are also characterised by the emergence of economies enjoying rapid growth, such as China, India, Indonesia, the Middle East and several African economies now.

The world economy has twice enjoyed super-cycles before. The first, from 1870 to 1913, saw a significant pick-up in global growth, with the world growing on average each year by 2.7 per cent, a full one per cent higher than previously seen. That cycle was led by the emergence of the US and saw increased trade and greater use of technologies from the Industrial Revolution. The second super-cycle, from 1945 to the early 1970’s, saw growth averaging 5 per cent and was characterised by the post-War reconstruction and catch up across large parts of the globe. It saw the emergence both of a large middle class in the West and of exporting nations across Asia, led by Japan.

Find out whether we are now on a third super-cycle here.